Mini Press Review from Dubai. Part 1

(articles in English)

Here are some articles gleaned mainly from the dailies 7Days and The Gulf News, between the months of April to September 2006.

This selection does not pretend in any way to render a complete or exact picture of the local press and even less so of local life styles. We simply chose to point out what seemed unusual to us and what could whet our readers' curiosity. Enjoy!

1-a) National telco company Etisalat received an award for "best operator" and for "best customer care" during a ceremony organized by the magazine Comms MEA. Having regularly published letters from readers venting their frustration, 7DAYS wanted to know on which criteria judges based their vote.

"Correspondence regarding the awards will not be entered into."

1-b) "Hundreds petition for cheap calls"

Etisalat declared that it is up to TRA to allow or ban VOIP, which allows international cheap calls through a PC to phone services such as Skype.

1-c) "Opinion: the real reasons why Skype is being blocked"

1-d) An Etisalat announcement: "The filtering of websites is not an individual decision of the corporation. It is based on the religious, cultural, political or moral values of the UAE based upon norms laid by the authorities and dating websites come under such a category."

Our comment: We were unable to access the international hospitality network Couchsurfing because it falls under the category of dating websites...

2-a) "We need crossings". One pedestrian is killed every four days in Dubai, accounting for 43% of road deaths. Road Transport Authority is considering building crossing bridges on main road Sheikh Zayed but for the moment focuses on promoting safer pedestrian behavior.

Our comment: picture a highway with 4 lanes on each side without any crossing bridges, underway or zebra crossings. We wonder whether next safety campaign from RTA will promote levitation. For the record, SZ Road holds the record of the highest casualty rate per kilometer in the world.